A. The predominant disturbance is one or more episodes of inability to fecall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

B. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Dissociative Fugue, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, or Somatization Disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a neurological or other general medical condition (e.g., Amnestic Disorder Due to Head Trauma).

C. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. (p. 481)

** Please use caution when reading any of the disorders listed above. Do not panic because you find a couple of symptoms that match a specific personality disorder. We all have symptoms that can apply to one or another disorder but what makes it a disorder is a "pervasive pattern" and that is how the psychiatrists and psychologists determine if it is a specific disorder.**